The Influnce Of Churchill On The Zionist Movement

Churchill was a world famous British politician，he had a profound and complex impact on the worldsituation and international politics in the20th century, including the impact of the Zionist movement.Although Churchill always claimed to be a friend of the Jews, however, due to national interests andpersonal feelings towards the Jewish people and many other factors intertwined, the Zionism movementsometimes was advanced by Churchill and sometimes being diverted by him, the impact was both positiveand negative.This thesis is divided into four parts：the first part is the introduction of the paper’s origin and meaning.The second part discusses the rise of the Zionist movement and Churchill’s “Jewish Complex”. Since theJews were forced to leave their homes, returned to Palestine and establish a Jewish state had been a dreamof the Jews. After entered the modern times, the Zionism movement raised in the19th century, some Jewishscholars and politicians came to realize that only the establishment of a Jewish state could solve the Jewishproblem. In1896, Theodor Herzl’s book The Jewish State: An attempt to solve modern Jewish problemmarked the advent of the system theory of Zionism was formed basically. Churchill had been holding theJews sympathetic and believed that its objectives should be supported. This attitude is largely built onChurchill’s “Jewish complex”. First, from childhood experiences, Churchill’s father, Lord RandolphChurchill often expressed sympathy and support for the Zionist movement publicly. Second, from thereligious and historical perspective, when exploring the origins of Christianity, he learned that the roleplayed by the Jews, so his goodwill to Zionism movement further strengthened. As a historian, Churchillfully understood anti-Semitic incidents in European history, which made a sense of guilt for him, so itmakes Churchill viewed Zionism movement with favor further. The third part discusses the impact ofChurchill’s support and impact to the Zionism movement. First, based on the interests of the British Empire,Churchill believed that the advocate of Zionism would be easing the pressure of immigration to Britain aswell as for the interests in Palestine of Britain. Second, Churchill hoped to use Zionism against Bolshevism.When Zionism movement didn’t conflict with the interests of the British Empire, Churchill mostly takenthe attitude of support and promote. When Churchill served as colonial secretary, he issued the "ChurchillWhite Paper ", which although restricted the activities of the Jews, but in general it was beneficial to Zionism movement. In the process of establishing the Jewish Brigade Churchill also played an active role.The fourth part analyzes the limitation and its impact of Churchill on Zionist movement. Churchill’s policywas not always beneficial to Zionism movement, which reflected on two issues: the first was his attitudetoward the "Mac Donald White Paper"，the second was his refusal on Zionism movement leader’srequirement of founding a state in Palestine. This refusal resulted that Zionist movement tended to seeksupport in the United States. Finally is the conclusion: due to the impact of childhood and religious culture,Churchill formed a "Jewish complex" in his boyhood, later, due to the strategic considerations Churchillformed a supportive attitude to the Zionist movement. However, Churchill did not support the Zionismmovement unconditionally, but always standing on the starting point for the strategic interests of the UnitedKingdom to examine the campaign, which carried on the support or containment to it.